Study says: No Gaming On School Nights

By James Munn | October 3, 2006

It’s difficult for adult gamers to try and fight the urge to share their hobby with their children. With gaming becoming more and more mainstream, and with mommy and daddy waving their arms around at the TV like monkeys in heat, it’s only going to become more difficult. Now a recent study concludes that, on a school night, any gaming is bad gaming.

Arstechnica discusses the study found in October’s Pediatrics magazine. 4,500 US middle-school students in New Hampshire and Vermont, were asked questions to rate their own performance in school. Somehow their responses alone, not their actual grades, was enough data to conclude that any gaming on a school night is a detriment to a childs development.

A study like this paints a pretty broad stroke. When I was a kid, I can remember sneaking games of Contra on school nights. My kids will probably be gamers, but I’m going to throw them out of the house on a sunny day just like my parents did to me back in the day. It’s a rights of passage, as far as I’m concerned.

Via Arstechnica